President Bush and Shirin Ebadi on Rights
I suspect that when freedom is the norm in the Middle East, people will point to Shirin Ebadi as a pioneer. She has a strong conviction that Islam and freedom are compatible and I hope she’s right.
President Bush agrees and is even sounding a bit Jeffersonian in his language.
Iranian human rights activist Shirin Ebadi spoke at a conference on Islam and...

This excerpt is from The Chicago Tribune and found via Daily Pundit. I won’t register with The Trib because they require you to receive email in exchange so you’ll have to go to Bill’s pad to get the link.
Thankfully, none of Rep. Jackson’s amendments will even make it out of Congress, much less past 38 state legislatures. These amendments, however, draw a clear distinction...

Tolerating Saudi Bigotry (washingtonpost.com)
A few months ago the State Department released its list of countries that lack freedom of religion and Saudi Arabia was omitted even though they are among the worst on the planet in this area.
At the time I was livid about the ommission and I still am. However, it’s nice to see some vindication in the form of this working group’s report on religious...

Mr. Cheney’s Wisdom (washingtonpost.com)
We can amend our Constitution to say whatever we please, but not all amendments are good ideas. Even more, not all amendments further individual liberty and some even detract from it. An amendment banning gay marriages is one such amendment.
As this Post editorial points out, current federal law already allows states to ignore gay marriages in other states...

Idealism in The Days After (washingtonpost.com)
I suspect democracy in Iraq will look significantly different than that of the United States or other western countries. There is a good reason for this and my opinion is that it rests on the separation of church and state. That will be hard to swallow since Islam doesn’t make that distinction, but it is a necessary precondition to freedom and should...

No Particular Concern (washingtonpost.com)
I don’t care if Mecca and Medina are located in Saudi Arabia, they can be tolerant of other religions and if they are not they should be placed on the State Department’s list of religiously repressive states.
This has been going on for years and it’s clearly to avoid offending delicate Saudi sensibilities. Never mind that it’s the truth....

I received a comment to an old post entitled “The Terrorists Are Destined To Lose”. The commenter disagrees and his solution is to purge Muslims from North America and Europe. Needless to say, I disagree.
I favor immigration as it’s always been a plus for this country. People of good will, that are law-abiding and industrious, should always be welcome in this country. His “solution”...